Lily's First Dental Appointment

We love cousin Alise! =) She is so much fun to have hang out and to spend time with.  She is crawling quickly now and loves to explore everything with all the sense, especially her mouth! We need to baby proof more.

The kids loved having Grandma Faiola visit when Chris was in Saudi. She spent all week here and it was a joy to have her.

Baby Lily missed her 'standy thing' (a Christmas present three years ago from Grandma and Grandpa Renoud) and we're so happy it's back now that the old house has been mostly emptied.

Washingon has been in a crazy heat spell, getting up to almost 90 multiple days in a row. The kiddos love playing outside - but now that we have Jamisen's latest genetic results back, he needs to wear sunscreen a ton, ton, ton! He has almost a 6X higher risk factor than the rest of the population for skin cancer (and for that matter, a 9X higher risk factor than the normal population for a blood clot).

Jamisen helped me clean out the garage by making a marshmallow roast with my yarn. He set the entire thing up and proclaimed that he was having a marshmallow roast.

Jackhammers are not just for boys!!

Jamisen did the most funny thing (ever) the other day. Erik and Cheriss and baby Alise were over. Erik was antagonizing Jamisen a bit in the playhouse. So Jamisen protested and then not getting Erik to quit, ran away. I found him in the garage with a giant 2 x 4 piece of wood. I said, "Jamisen, what are you going to do with that?" And he said to me, "I am not going to hit Erik with it and I am not going to take the rocks in my bag and throw them at him!" Ahhhh, well then...

Jamisen continues to enjoy doing crafts and art with me - bless that child - and even sometimes gets messy like this marble-paint rolling painting project.

Lily had her first dentist appointment - and other than the fact that the denist was running SO dang late that it took TWO HOURS (two hours people! for a toddler dentist appointment) - the appointment was fine. Lily was an amazingly perfect little girl (again, refer the TWO HOUR wait to see dentist) and charmed everyone she came into contact with. She loved exploring the entire place and even stayed still for the teeth checks. Of course, the dentist was in such a hurry after she saw Lily that she didn't paint flouride on her teeth. So, we didn't quite get the full-meal-deal treatment but Lily's teeth were proclaimed healthy - and the dentist showed us where Lily has four big teeth coming in. Lily complained just tonight about how much her teeth were hurting. Poor kid, those teeth that are coming through do look huge. I hope they don't cause her too much pain as they come in.

Lily's Birthday

While we were barely in our home when Lily's birthday arrived, we were determined to celebrate, even if there was no furniture (all the better to jump in right?!)

Big thanks to Grandpa who stayed up until midnight (!!) helping me assembled decorations while Chris was in another room spending five hours (!) on a crazy *yet awesome* toy wooden house for Lily's big birthday present from us.

As soon as Lily saw the decorations, she said "Birthday? Me?! In my house? Birthday party. ME! In MY HOUSE!" It was amazing to see her brain process it all and come to the correct conclusion.

Some funny things Lily does right now:

1. She is a hilarious mimic. Just tonight, I said "Good job, Daddy'O!" to Chris and she repeated it like six times. It sounds really endearing coming from the mouth of a babe (an actual, literal-sense-of-the-word babe).

2. She loves broccoli and chard. Basically, she is amazing child. 

3. Her favorite phrase is "I do it! I do it!" She is fiercely independent, so much so that she makes me wait at the bottom of two flights of stairs to come up if she's on the stairs (lest I try to hold her hand and help her).

4. She loves books. Like, is obsessed with them. She will happily sit there for as long as you will keep reading to her and pick out books. She's starting to memorize books too - which makes me feel good that other caregivers are reading to her as well.

Behold, our exhausted, happy, loved and loving family of four. Chris and I feel blessed and fortunate every day that we were gifted with our two perfect, sweet and kind children.

Lily tore off her wrapping paper on her gifts from Grandma and Grandpa Faiola. Given that she doesn't have much practice at it, she really was a pro!

I have never seen a kid this excited about a birthday present; EVER. She leapt feet up into the air (okay, maybe inches but basically, FEET) and squealed and shrieked with delight. She was SO happy and excited. It was adorable. 

Her extreme acrobatic excitement was also puzzling given that she really doesn't know what a doll house is, having never seen TV or a commercial or an advertisement. So our take away is always get her gifts that photos of the gift on the box - because that photo gives her the instant gratification.

Jamisen and I made butterscotch butterscotch butterscotch cupcakes for Lily's birthday (from scratch, with butterscotch ganache inside). It was over-the-top nuts but oh-so-delicious.

Jamisen was just as excited as Lily to play with her dollhouse from Grandma and Grandpa Faiola - and for the most part, they played amazingly well. I think this is because the doll house very clearly is Lily's and Jamisen knows it. So therefore, the power has shifted just a little bit with it.

Happy birthday Lily! We're so glad you're two and in our family.

Enjoying the House

One of the goals I put down for this year was to spend more time with family. In fact, I even wrote out a full multi-sentence goal around just how much I wanted to spend time with family. Little did I know that apparently, blowing up our home would make that goal come true ... in spades!

Between Seabrook (post-explosion haven) and lots of Grandparent Faiola time and the move and lake time and now the new house, we have seen more of Erik, Cheriss, Alise and Grandma/Grandpa Faiola than ever. We can't wait to show Grandma and Grandpa Renoud our new digs when they're back on a trip from their new home in Arizona.

With all the family time comes so many new things to learn. Alise is mobile now (that's right, crawling!) and happily tries to assert her curious nature on any inanimate objects in her path. Lily is fantastic about setting clear, and totally selfishly inappropriate boundaries, exclaiming "MINE! MINE!" loudly. She's two. We're working on it.

Jamisen remains my biggest helper in the kitchen. It's incredible how sweet, loving and kind he is 90% of the time. He clears his plate from the table. He helps to load the dishwasher and gets his own plates out of the cupboard for me to fill (side note: as I write this, I am watching my husband drizzle salted caramel on ice cream before bed. Curse him and his fast, male metabolism.)

My Mastermind Business groups remain a stable part of my business life. Chris has a Mastermind group in Seattle he goes to as well. It's so great that summer is here because we're able to meet earlier for meetings and do hikes and paddleboards beforehand. We just finished reading 'The Alchemist' by Paolo Coehlo and are moving on to 'The Magical Art of Tidying Up.' While on the face of it, neither are traditional business books, learning to follow our dreams (The Alchemist) and working in a tidy space so we're free to have creative thoughts (The Magical Art of Tidying Up) are both resonant business ideas.

I also was privileged to host Senator Wendy Davis (Texas) in Seattle for a record crowd of 450 people for Votes. I also went to a very small dinner with 17 thought-leaders in the Pacific Northwest and participated in a salon of sorts. It was fun to go and talk politics and current events for three hours, with no worry of brushing kid's teeth and diaper changes. Thanks Honey for taking care of the littles!

Jamisen's self-portrait at age 4

We had a small birthday celebration for Jamisen at his school. It was such a sweet birthday, with Jamisen showing all the kids photos of himself at different ages. He really got a lot of attention heaped on him and while he was a little uncomfortable with it, he walked around with this photos proudly and enjoyed the birthday celebration song.

Transition Time

We've had a fantastic time getting used to our new routines - only to have school end and all routines up in the air. The kiddos' part-time manny, Jason, is also a circus instructor so every so often, he takes the kids to the circus lab to show them tricks, let them run their energy off and try the trapeze (over a very thick pad). They love the creativity and Jamisen especially is modeling Jason, offering to show us "tricks" all the time.

We were happy Uncle Ryan came to visit for a few hours. The kids took him to Boulevard Park where we enjoyed watching construction more than we actually played in the park.
 It was especially exciting when one of the diggers hit a previous not-identified water line and water gushed everywhere. The engineers in the family (Weston and Chris) were particularly amused by this mishap.

Lily is our happy little daredevil; you can tell she has an older brother because she just throws herself down the slide with wild abandon.

The view of our new home from the yard; the curved arch is just amazing. The former owners designed it to look that way, stating that they didn't just want it to look like a giant box. We are very thankful for their thoughtful design aesthetic.

We have two lovely koi + about 7 other fish in the pond in front of the house. Turbo and Sally are our two large koi and they swim happily though do cringe when they hear and see the children. They also won't eat in their presence so we have to hide behind a bush to watch them eat.

Lily loves her new mattress; that's right, new mattresses for the entire family!

And bedding too. All of the bedding was discarded during the asbestos-no-asbestos purge.

We love our new house but man oh man, has this been a stressful 3 months. Between a trip to Saudi for Chris, a trip to Kansas City and Prattville, Alabama for me and moving and insurance claims, we are looking for some stability and normalcy.

The kids are loving the playhouse that came with the new house, especially our dare devil Lily.

But going down slides is for beginners; both kids are fully into climbing up the slide to get into the play area. It's fun to see them adventuring.

Sad, Happy, & More Moving

 Behold the second dumpster worth of moving and throwing away. Yes Grandpa, that does look like the broken jungle gym you took hours and hours putting together It's sad to see all of this. We have hit a little snag in the otherwise very smooth insurance as apparently, summer vacations have hit. So now I am dealing with the THIRD personal property insurance person in the last three weeks. State Farm has been beyond amazing for all of this so the latest little glitch in the system has been surprising.

The insurance adjustor keeps asking for receipts for things that are over $250 and of course, we don't really have them (who keeps a bean bag receipt from two years ago?!). That has been frustrating but we're getting through it slowly. 

Another thing that has been rather slow is the actual move. Wow, we have a lot of stuff (!). I am motivated, along with Chris, to purge and purge and purge but right now, time is of the essence so we're hauling EVERYTHING over to the new house and then sorting. We just need to clear out of the old house so we can stage and resell it pronto.

One of the 'lots of stuff' things was a full bedroom set for Lily that I had purchased when she was just a zygote in my belly for $250 off Craigslist. It looks incredible in her new room. Her new room is a pale pistachio green and the super cute furniture makes her room really pop. She is thrilled about it but until I get her a new crib mattress so she can use her transition bed to get used to not rolling out of bed, she's in her temporary pack 'n' play.

Lily and Cousin Alise have become very fast friends. Cousin Alise has spent a lot of time here lately (along with her parents) and we're happy that the new house is bringing family together in a real and meaningful way.

Jamisen continues to love to cook and be a huge helper in the kitchen. He even made me Mother's Day breakfast (eggs, naturally!).

We also have been enjoying messy, sensory play - like this cornstarch food coloring experiment.

We have been thankful for the kindess of friends that have hosted us for dinners during the last three months and can't wait to repay their generosity when we are more settled in this beautiful new family home.

One of our last forays at the lake house involved this adorable little hiking duo. Jamisen and Lily continue to rapidly evolve and grow as friends. Jamisen just told me today that he was sad Lily was going to school because he would miss her. Awwww ...

Moved! We have Moved!

The story of how we ended up in our new 'Forever Home' is so circuitous and fortuitous, it never would be put in a plot line of a book because the author would think, "Nah, no one would ever believe that!"

After a week of living at the lake house, and commuting back and forth to work, our friend and realtor, Heather, put out an all-points-bulletin to find us a suitable, fully furnished house to rent while our home was being repaired. At this point, we still believed our house would never be remodeled in a timely manner because of a fraudulent asbestos test that was holding everything up. Heather got two realtor friends that didn't have rentals that would work for us but did have houses that we may wish to look at - neither of which was on the market.

The First Mastermind Meeting, 2 days after we moved in! No chairs.

Off we traipsed to the two homes. One was the 'Treehouse Home' that Chris and I had long dreamed to own. Before kids, before marriage, we used to drive this neighborhood, looking and shopping in our heads and talking about the future. The 'Treehouse Home' wasn't on the market but it soon would be and for a fair price. It felt like a sign; after all, this was the house we had always longed for, eeven before we became a family unit. It's on the 'front row' of the neighborhood with unobstructed water views, a giant lot and yes, a treehouse. It's also a bit of a fixer-upper so we brought our contractor to look at the home with us. The view was awesome but the remodel needed was extensive and a bit overwhelming.

Off we caravan-ed to the next house. I had already been in this house one time before when it was on the market the previous year and had told Chris that I liked our (old) house better for the age our kids were. He had said that he actually thought the layout of the new house was better for older kids. It was surprising and surreal to be in the house I had mentally rejected a year before and see our now-older children happily running around, playing and frolicking in the generously sized lawn and play set at the house. That felt good. And, another thing that felt good? This home didn't require a remodel! Plus, it was only a block away from our old house.

Jamisen & manny Jason painted the AC box to make a play house!

The choice was clear to us - buy the home that we could move into right away. We put in an aggressive offer (20 day close, no contingencies) and then desperately tried to get a hold of our mortgage broker on the weekend. Little did we know she was in Mexico on vacation! We had a nervous few days while we waited to hear if we could get a loan and get the loan within 20 days.

After a little back and forth with the former owners, our Forever Home was ours with a 22 day close. We closed on this home exactly 2 years, to the date, that we closed on our last home - and, on our wedding anniversary to boot. The timing synchronicity was/is amazing.

There was a whole convoluted series of falsified asbestos tests that led us to the decision to buy a new house and we couldn't be more delighted with our new home. It was originally built in the 40's and then fully remodeled in 2007. The year it was remodeled, the former owner's children were 2 and 3 - the same ages of Lily and Jamisen (2 and 4). The house was designed for family, community and memories.

Every single detail in it is thoughtful and useful for our family of four. The house also absorbs extra people extremely well and we have loved entertaining here already. In fact, we threw a housewarming party the evening we moved in and in the last month that we've been in the home, have hosted at least 8 play dates and multiple dinner parties.

First trip to Costco with the kids

The kids have dealt with the transition amazingly. To move multiple times, be pulled out of school, to not have any of your toys and not have any of your clothes (!) ... all of that is a lot to take, especially if you're under 3 feet tall. Our family has grown stronger as a unit and our kids, more resilient - and who would have thought that we would have gotten a brand new house out of the deal!? Our former house will be ready to go on the market in the next 10 days and we're hoping to move it quickly to a new family that loves it like we did. I planted the garden for them so they will enjoy strawberries, raspberries, corn, beets, tomatoes, kale, and squash when they move in.

Grandma and Grandpa Renoud sent their love from Arizona by giving the kids a new toy shopping spree. Look at the smile on our little fireman's face!! He picked out a new school bus and two juggling pins (undoubtedly because his manny Jason is a circus performer).  Thank you Grandma and Grandpa! =)

This is the yard at the new home. There is a huge lawn for the kids to play, run, jump and slide on. We cannot believe our good fortune that we get to live here.

On more sad news, our old home has been mostly gutted downstairs and all the belongings downstairs thrown out - along with all the mattresses and bedding upstairs (all because of the fraudulent asbestos findings). We've thrown away two 40' dumpsters in possessions, including chairs, couches, and the beloved bouncy house.

All the soft toys were disposed of - and, for that matter, ALL the toys downstairs were goners including the awesome motorized train set that was a hand-me-down from our little friend Kyle who passed away. We are trying to find the silver lining in losing all the toys but it's hard since many of them would have been passed down to cousin Alise or donated to the Goodwill instead of going into the landfill. But with the fake asbestos tests dictating disposal, we couldn't even donate them.

The downstairs was fully gutted and will be getting new paint, new shreetrock, a new boiler, and new radiators. The new owners will have super efficient heating! =) And, a brand new rebuilt wine cellar too ... It will be nice when it's fully finished and sold. Soon ... it will be soon.

The journey to get into our Forever House was convoluted and winding but we are so happy here and thankful for all that we have gone through as a family. We have made so many memories. Life is precious and we know that even more acutely than ever now.